THE Games are just a wave of good feeling rolling over Glasgow.
Even normally taciturn officials are getting caught up. Alan Ferguson was on a crowded Subway at Buchanan Street heading to the Rugby 7s when a member of staff on the platform enthusiastically sang out: "All aboard! All aboard!" Alan knew he was still in Glasgow though when a chap getting on muttered: "Does he know this is the Glasgow Subway, and no' the Chattanooga Choo Choo?"
Pretty great
IT'S not just the spectators and stewards who have been on great behaviour at the Games. John Sheridan in Airdrie tells us: "I was strolling down the street outside the West End Bar when the Guyana cycle team passed. The last rider tailed off and came up to join me on the pavement and asked if I could open a litter bin next to me. He then deposited a small piece of paper with the words, 'Such a pretty town. Would not want to drop litter'. I was well impressed."
Shame on you, dear reader, if your first reaction is to think "Airdrie?"
Word of advice
FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has been quietly visiting many of the Games sites in Glasgow. He was at the lawn bowls at Kelvingrove when a lady told him he was "looking particularly slim".Our dieting Eck confirmed he had lost more than two stones, which brought the response from the Glasgow woman: "You better be careful, women will start hitting on you."
Our happily married First Minister joked: "How will I know?" only to be given the advice by the departing woman: "It's like riding a bike - don't worry, it'll all come flooding back."
Bowled over
TALKING of the bowls, one WestEnder declared to his mate: "Saw a boy in lawn bowls gear downing a pint sitting outside a pub tonight with his silver medal round his neck. That's not a sport." His mate replied: "Sounds like my kind of sport."
Tuning in
A Glasgow taxi driver, tells me: "Talking to a busker in the cab. Wait for this - today he made £250 in four hours, busking in Buchanan Street. And he only knows three songs!"
Heavenly delights
AMONGST the crowds in Glasgow's George Square was one of those soap box preachers belting out that everyone was bound for Hell unless they found Jesus. A reader tells us he then pointed at a passing chap and bellowed: "Do you want to go to Heaven with Jesus?" "Naw," replied the chap without breaking stride. "I'm going to the SECC to watch the boxing."
Learning the language
SHADES of Stanley Baxter's Parliamo Glasgow as Paul Drury passes on: "BBC Sports reporter Aimee Lewis at one of the Games venues, puzzled by the crowd's invocation to 'Gie it laldy' explained to southern audiences, 'I've discovered it's the Scottish slang for carrying out a task with ferocious enthusiasm.' So now you know."
Name game
WE mentioned the BBC captioning the south side park Bella Houston during the Marathon. It reminds Nancy Brown in Kilmarnock: "Many years ago when the evangelist Billy Graham was speaking at the Kelvin Hall there was a story going around that his wife was not happy as she had heard that he was spending too much time between Bellahouston and Maryhill."
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